Cigarette Break

A piece about addiction and a search, a self-experiment

Dance, theater and performance, from 12 years up

What if we were to take a break from smoking, stare at the ashes and wait to see whether a phoenix rises from them?
When I was ten-years-old I hid my dad's cigarettes because they're unhealthy. When I was twelve I secretly smoked at the open-air pool and I felt sick. As Ernst Jandl says: "I am free and I feel sick". Now I've been smoking for more than half my life. I don't feel sick anymore, but am I free?
I read about a man who on his fortieth birthday decided to take a "cigarette break" till his eightieth birthday. I can do that, I say to myself...
The schallundrauch agency takes a deeper look into the phenomenon of addiction and goes on a journey from experiment to craving and back. We dance and sing, we tell of our habits and addictions, we are perfect and flawed, we are hung over, jolly and thoughtful, we stare at our mobiles, look into each other’s eyes and clean up.